Willimantic Needle Exchange Has Converts, Critics

September 09, 1995|By LAURA UNGAR; Courant Staff Writer

WILLIMANTIC — In a small garage off a one-way street hangs a sign reading, ``Needle XChange, Clean Works.'' Tony Clark, a bearded, tattooed 61-year-old who looks like a streetwise Santa Claus, hands out sterile syringes and takes back dirty ones.

For five years, Clark and a friend, Mark Svetz, have traded needles with drug users to slow the spread of AIDS. The program, started illegally, stirred controversy downtown and led to a series of arrests for the two men.

Today, the exchange is one of five operating legally -- and apparently effectively -- in the state. Recent statistics show that a steadily increasing number of people are exchanging used needles, meaning they are not sharing them with others.

From April through June, the latest quarter measured, the rate at which people returned needles was 97 percent, up from 84 percent the previous quarter and 79 percent the quarter before. Clark estimated that he and other needle exchange workers trade about 25 syringes a day.

The trend indicates the program is growing more effective in its efforts to prevent the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, said Jane Metzler-Potz of the Windham Regional Community Council, which compiled the statistics. Although Clark still runs the daily operation, the private, nonprofit social service organization now oversees the exchange.

Despite the effort, the virus remains a threat to the community. There have been 55 confirmed cases of AIDS in Windham, 14 of them since January, according to the state Department of Public Health.

Clark -- who has been involved in numerous causes, including protests against nuclear weapons and the Persian Gulf War -- considers his work at the exchange as important now as ever.

``AIDS is spreading. Babies are born with it. It's a horrible thing,'' Clark said in a recent interview. ``We do this because it's the right thing to do.''

Beginning five years ago and using money donated by residents and businesses, he and Svetz drove to Vermont, where it was legal to buy nonprescription syringes. They bought as many as they could.

Back in town, they took the needles to drug users' homes in a van. They were given keys to the Hotel Hooker on Main Street, and often went from room to room to trade with the people staying there.

Clark and Svetz were arrested five times, most recently in 1991, on charges related to possessing and distributing syringes. The charges were eventually dismissed, after the practice became legal, Clark said. Windham Superior Court had no record of the cases, which is consistent with dismissals.

``The judge threw the cases out of court,'' said Jeffrey Beadle, executive director of the community council, who said the program was sanctioned by the state health department in 1993. ``He realized [Clark and Svetz] were responding to a public health crisis and they shouldn't be punished for this.''

In the summer of 1993, the first time organizers received an annual $50,000 state grant, the exchange moved into a garage behind the community council on Main Street.

Although it is now out of public view, the exchange is still in the public eye. Some criticize the entire notion of needle exchanges, saying it implicitly condones drug use. And drugs, after all, are considered the biggest contributor to crime in town, where there were 171 drug-related arrests last year.

Police Chief Milton King would not comment on the exchange, but others said they still have concerns.

``I guess [the needle exchange] is good and bad. The good thing it's doing is stopping the spread of AIDS. The bad thing it's doing is it makes it easier for drug users. It might be encouraging people to do drugs,'' said Fred Fallon, executive director of the Willimantic YMCA. ``You see needles, you know there's drugs around.''

Bill Meehan, an owner of Meehan & Daughters Real Estate and Development Co. on Main Street, said his employees have discovered more than 300 needles nearby. Last week, he had the brush behind his property cut to stop drug users from shooting up there.

``I feel this [exchange] should be moved out of the area. It's an attraction for people who get something for free,'' Meehan said. ``The people who run it are very compassionate. But I feel it's detrimental to our downtown environment having that exchange.''

But as studies have indicated that needle exchange programs slow the spread of AIDS, controversy has quieted somewhat.

``When I originally saw the program, I was skeptical,'' said state Rep. Pamela Z. Sawyer, R-Bolton. ``But I was one of the converts. . . . I felt that my vote [in support of money for exchange programs] was conservative, because in the long run it will save money, save lives and cost the taxpayer less.''

An 18-month study released in 1993 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that exchanges are helping curtail the spread among drug users, their sex partners and their children of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. It also found no evidence that distributing needles leads to an increase in drug use.

Clark refuses to believe that what he does encourages drug use. Drug users who trust him, he said, sometimes ask where to turn for help. And in his garage office, there is literature about AIDS prevention.

But Clark does not preach to those who stop by the garage, be they street people, prostitutes or ``people driving nice cars who you know have good jobs.''

``People do drugs or they don't do drugs. I don't have an opinion,'' he said. ``I've given up trying to figure out other people.''